Sefko: After making monetary fortunes, new Mavericks focused on becoming winners

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Brad Loper/Staff Photographer

Dallas Mavericks point guard Gal Mekel (33) scrambles for a loose ball with New Orleans Pelicans power forward Anthony Davis (23) in the first half of NBA Preseason Basketball action at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on Monday, October 7, 2013. (Brad Loper/The Dallas Morning News)

Mark Cuban dances pretty well, and we’re not talking about how he did on any reality show.

For years, he has preached how he likes to have players going into the final year of their contract because he feels he will get terrific effort out of guys playing for next season’s contract.

This year, after signing seven of his nine new Mavericks to multi-year deals, Cuban has changed his outlook slightly.

“People talk about the last year of a contract, it’s just as good to have guys with something to prove,” he said. “And we got a lot of guys with something to prove who are team guys and willing to buy into the season.”

This comes after a season when the Mavericks had a slew of players in their final contract season, yet they missed the playoffs for the first time since 2001.

“We needed certain guys to step up last year, and they didn’t,” Cuban said. “Now I think we got guys who are little more established in what they do, and I think that helps. When you talk to our guys that have been here, the first thing they’ll say is we got some talent and we got some depth. I really think it comes down to health. If Dirk stays healthy, if Vince stays healthy, Shawn stays healthy, then I think we’ll be good.”

Indeed, Dirk Nowitzki, Vince Carter and Shawn Marion all need to stay upright as much as possible.

But much of the Mavericks’ success is going to depend on how well many of their nine new faces perform. Seven of those nine signed multi-year contracts before the season. The two who didn’t — Devin Harris and DeJuan Blair — are hoping to rebuild their value and sign bigger deals next summer.

The rest know they have security beyond this season.

But Cuban is correct in the fact that several of them have reached the point in their career where they need to prove they are more than just nice players who can put up numbers.

Monta Ellis, Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert and Harris all have earned more than $50 million in their careers. Only Harris has come close to a championship, making the Finals in 2006 with the Mavericks in his second season.

The other three have a grand total of one playoff series win among them — Ellis’ first-round upset of the Mavericks in 2007.

So they’ve made their money.

Now can they make their reputations as winners?

Rick Carlisle has talked about the progression of players and how they work to establish themselves as good players, earn mega-contracts, then get down to the business of trying to win big.

It works the other way occasionally. Think of J.J. Barea, who won big with the Mavericks in 2011, then cashed in. But in this era of the NBA, that’s not necessarily the norm.

Is the burn to improve and be a playoff force there?

“Oh, for sure,” said Carter, who has reached a conference final, but never the NBA Finals. “That’s why I wanted to come back here. We’re a very, very good team, a very smart team. I feel that we’re definitely capable.”

And from players like Ellis, Carter sees a change in attitude.

“He wants to learn and he wants to get better,” Carter said. “You hate to play against him because he’s so darn quick and he gets to the basket with ease. I think it’s going to help him because of the experience and the shooting on this team. He just wants to see this team win.”

With an older trio like Carter, Nowitzki and Marion, the message is filtering down to Ellis, Calderon and Dalembert — who aren’t spring chickens, but are considerably younger than the other three.

“Everybody knows what’s at stake for the older guys and they want to win,” Cuban said. “They don’t want to miss [the playoffs] like last year.”

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